After I got married we were having a discussion about which vegetables we ate growing up, and my husband was raving about these baked lima beans that his mother made that were the best beans he ever ate. I found a recipe for baked lima beans, made them in a dutch oven, and they were good but not quite like mom’s. The next time we saw her, we asked how she used to make the baked beans and she had no recollection of ever making them.
He brought up the baked lima beans again one time so I tried a slow cooker recipe. The beans turned out OK, but not like mom’s. A few years passed, until recently my mother-in-law cleaned out her basement and found a clay pot and cookbook. The cookbook was from the U.K. but there was a recipe in it for Boston baked beans. My husband thought that might be the recipe she used so I tried again, although following the recipe called for navy beans instead of lima beans.
I had to put off using the clay pot for a weekend when there was plenty of time, because besides soaking the beans overnight and then boiling them, you have to soak the clay pot for 15 minutes and put it into a cold oven. I did not like the idea of soaking the whole pot because it wasted a sink full of water (even though we have a well, I know a lot of people have water restrictions). The clay pot does not like quick changes in temperature so it takes almost two hours to bake it considering the length of time it sits warming up in the oven and then cooking. It was quite a waste of time and resources and the beans came out truly crappy. The moisture was not absorbed evenly and there were beans that were hard to bite into, kind of like popcorn kernels.
I decided in frustration that if similar clay pots weren’t going for at least twenty bucks on ebay, it wasn’t even worth the soaking and scraping that it would take to clean the hardened molasses off the bottom of the pot so I could sell it. A similar, vintage clay pot new in the box sold for $10 on ebay, so the whole mess went into the trash and I got out of cleaning it. Another benefit of pitching it, is that I don’t have to take up room storing it. The quest to reproduce mom’s lima beans is now officially over and I hope to not hear about them again for quite some time.
When I was home from Thanksgiving, my aunt made a comment to me that the amount of food she makes on Thanksgiving for a small group is because of my Uncle’s traditions. For example, besides the turkey she makes a pot of sausage and sauerkraut. I knew my Uncle would not be thrilled with the kolach* I made him because I cut back on the butter and replaced the white granulated sugar. He would still eat it with butter on it, but it’s not like mom’s. My aunt said the first time she made chicken paprikas, my uncle said it was OK, but not like mom’s. She was really bummed so she asked my Grandma how to make it and got one of those, “Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” replies. She went to the next best source, Auntie Theresa, Grandma’s sister. Auntie showed her how to make chicken paprikas so my aunt tried it again. When my Uncle got home from work he made some comment when he saw chicken paprikas that he did not expect it to be as good as mom’s, and then he was sufficiently blown away and ate his words after trying it!
The funny thing is, when my Grandma got married, she did not know how to cook at all. My Grandpa was one of those guys that would eat anything and say it was good – he grew up in a poor family with five boys, so he was happy she was at least trying. She learned by practicing. Now I kind of regret throwing away the clay pot. I should have tried it a few times, although it would still be very resource intensive with the water, gas oven, and time. Next I’ll try the pressure cooker — faster than the stove and doesn’t need to soak.
Another positive is that we ate out at a Cuban place in Frederick, which was a nice treat, and went to the Weinberg. The Weinberg is a restored theater that was playing the 1928 Buster Keaton silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr. expertly accompanied by the “Mighty” Wurlitzer pipe organ – very cool. Back to the kitchen tomorrow.
*The popular spelling in case anyone does an online search. (I spell it kalacz.)
